The Lord Mayor of London covers the whole con-urban spread of greater London and the Lord Mayor of the City of London covers 1.12 square kilometres of the financial district with a population of nearly 11,000 people, so it is a bit confusing. Alderman Lord Mayor Professor Michael Mainelli gave a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce recently. I didn’t know anything about him, but sitting there listening to him, I immediately noticed how smooth his delivery was. He had good pacing, good voice strength, some appropriate humour and an engaging manner.
He is well educated at Harvard University, Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics. We all know that being well educated and teaching at University are no guarantees of public speaking ability and prowess. In the Lord Mayor’s case, he has had a very successful business career as a founder. He is a chartered certified accountant, computer specialist, securities professional and management consultant. His talk was an amalgamation of capabilities built up across a broad spectrum career.
Being highly successful in your career is a great contributor to exuding quiet confidence as a speaker. Often, when we are making our careers, we may be trying to be a bit too strong, a bit too strident, too loud, too forceful because we are in a hurry. Bringing these attributes into the speaking world is not a great idea. Professor Mainelli’s demeanor was that of a person with good levels of self-awareness and an unhurried manner. That unhurried manner was very convincing. He didn’t come across as trying to be persuasive, but was persuasive.
I was thinking about that for myself. I am a very high-powered presenter, well that is always the feedback I get after my presentations, so I take it at face value. However, can I learn something here and take a leaf out of his book? Obviously, throughout his career, Professor Mainelli has had numerous opportunities to speak in public, and it shows. What we see today is the accumulation of all of those years of speaking, and it is a very polished example of how to be persuasive.
Was he like that at the beginning? I doubt it because this is a finite skill we develop, not something we are born with. We all benefit from substantial practice of any art. Perhaps speaking opportunities were thrust upon him and he learnt how to become better. I should have asked him, shouldn’t I, when I was chatting with him after the talk. I will remember that for the next time I meet someone who is so highly skilled.
What can we take away from his example? Firstly, study the art or do as much speaking as possible and keep adjusting your techniques on the basis of your evolution as a speaker or even better – do both. This sounds simple, except I ran away from every speaking opportunity until my early thirties. I was terrified of public speaking and would have been one of those people ranking it in surveys ahead of death! You may also be an avoider like I was. If you want to become competent as a speaker, you have to give talks. It is like trying to teach someone to swim on the deck of the pool. It is a great theory, but nothing happens until you dive into the water and get wet and start swimming around.
Grab the slightest chance of speaking in public. Yes, it is terrifying at the start, but it gets less so as your frequency mounts up. Tony Robbins, in one of his books, talks about how he purposely decided to speak as much as possible. He realised that most speakers only get a few chances a year and he could match their annual total experience in just weeks, if he got enough speaking spots. He went for it and has turned that speaking facility into a career, business and massive wealth. Being nine feet tall probably helped too.
Getting proper coaching is also the quickest way to get much better. I have done some public speaking training with different organisations, but nothing has matched the High Impact Presentations course that we teach. I don’t say that to sell training, but as an objective statement based on my experiences. My broader point is to go get the training. I lost a decade of potential experience and career advancement because I let fear rule me. I didn’t engage my brain and say, “the way to overcome the fear I have is to get proper training”. I was too stupid for that logical consequence of having a problem and needing to fix it. Don’t be like Greg!
I still look for any chance I can get to speak, because I know this will help me to keep pushing myself and keep improving. My records tell me I have delivered 558 public speeches so far. Am I satisfied with that? No, I am certain that I can still improve and get a lot better. All I need is the chance to keep polishing and keep improving. I now aim to achieve the zen like “mind of no mind” effortlessness that the Lord Mayor of the City of London displayed in his remarks. What about you? What are you going to do to become competent and comfortable as a speaker, someone highly persuasive and influential with those around you?
